The Outback Thunder is asking for the Town of Carrot River’s support to build a team dressing room.
The Prairie Junior Hockey League team is estimating it will cost $40,000. It is hoping the town, the RM of Moose Range and the team will pay one-third of the cost each.
At the April 19 council meeting, the team said the dressing room is something they need to attract players to the team.
“We’re committed to make the team successful and this is something we think we need to do,” Perry Williams, the team’s president, told council.
The team said they would also allow minor hockey teams to use the dressing room for tournaments.
Bob Gagné, Carrot River’s mayor, said council is going to have to look at the proposal more closely.
“I can’t really say too much because most of us just heard about it tonight about the proposal and we’ll have to sit in committee and decide on that.”
Kevin Trew, the town’s administrator, said in his mind, there’s three components to the proposal: permission to build the dressing room on town land, financial assistance to build the facility and upkeep of the building.
It’s the last one the town is most concerned about. Some items that would have to be dealt with are cleaning, paying utilities, getting insurance and performing maintenance. The team told council they were willing to clean the building and pay utilities if necessary.
“We know from experience that if it’s built on town property, attached to a town building, we all know who’s going to be tasked with all of that,” Trew said.
The administrator said the town’s willing to work with the team, but there will have to be frank discussions, as there might be more items connected to upkeep than the team has taken into account.
The team hopes to have a dressing room built before the start of the next season.
